


Mortal Folly

by CosmicMind



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, M/M, Sad Ending, Tetch Virus, not really a shipping fic but there's some pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 02:17:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11221203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmicMind/pseuds/CosmicMind
Summary: AU where Jim didn't take the virus, and Harvey seeks revenge.





	Mortal Folly

**Author's Note:**

> I stole another cartoon episode title. I'm a bad girl
> 
> This is inspired by [this](http://gordlock-fanart.tumblr.com/post/161551650799/au-where-jim-didnt-take-the-virus-but-harvey-and) post. Warning: this does not have a happy ending

Every second the passed, every labored, shaky breath Harvey took counted.

 

Jim was dying God knows where underground and Harvey was trying desperately to find a hay in a needlestack. By now it seemed impossible for him to be alive- he had gone silent several minutes ago. But he couldn’t stop looking, not until they found his boy scout.

 

Harvey wished he was faster, and stronger. Had it not been for his own foolishness not to confront Lee with Jim, he wouldn’t be searching.

 

But he was too late to get to Jim, just like before. Like every time.

 

“Cap, we got something!” one of the K9’s called out from the bottom of a steep hill. Harvey nearly tripped over his own feet as he ran down, ignoring the possibility of collapsing from exhaustion. The sound of the dogs barking with excitement and the frantic digging was a beacon of hope that it would be okay, and he and Jim could get out of yet another close call. They could laugh about it tomorrow, when everything would be okay.

 

When the coffin was finally revealed, the beacon went out.

 

Jim looked more peaceful than he had been in years, yet the lack of breathing was haunting. Harvey practically shoved one of the K9’s out of the way as Jim was lifted out, leaning over him.

 

“Call a paramedic, stat!” Harvey barked before turning his attention back to Jim. There wasn’t a pulse to be found, and Jim’s skin was cooling down to match the snow around them. Harvey attempted to breathe life into him, muttering Jim’s name like a sinner in church between deep breaths, hoping and hoping Jim would start sputtering any second now. He listened to Jim’s heart every few pumps, and more dread filled him as there was silence through the layers of clothing.

 

Sure, he had dreamt of locking lips with Jim before, but not like this. Not when only one of them was alive and the other was becoming numb with fear of losing the other. This was wrong.

 

After nearly a minute of desperate palpitations and breathing, he came to the grave truth that there would be no more pizza and beer hangouts, or long stakeouts together, or any ruthless escapades in the clutches of certain doom. Jim was gone.

 

This couldn’t be real. Harvey had to have slipped on the steps of the GCPD and cracked his head open. Jim never died. He always made it out through impossible odds, because Jim Gordon gave the middle finger to Death and always knew the way out. Jim had the will and the way, but not this time, and not ever again.

 

Except he did have a way out.

 

Still curled in his limp hands was the syringe filled with the deadly Tetch virus. Harvey picked up the syringe, tears welling in his eyes as he cradled Jim close. Why, why, why couldn’t Jim take it? It was right there. They would have found a cure for him. It would be okay, just as long as Jim was alive.

 

Though Jim obviously preferred Death than losing himself, and Harvey’s view couldn’t be more opposite. He couldn’t even be mad at Lee for now, despite how that crazy bitch costed Harvey the life of his best partner. He would deal with her later. Right now he had to be here for Jim, even if Jim wasn’t alive to see it.

 

“All of you, get back to the city,” Harvey said, quieter this time yet refusing to show his face, “That Tetch virus is out there, and they’re gonna need all the backup they can get.”

 

“But, Cap,” one of the younger men- a new recruit named Miguel- asked nervously, “What about you?”

 

“I’ll be back soon… just…”

 

“It’s ‘kay boss, we get it.”

 

The other men and dogs trudged through the snow towards their trucks, leaving Harvey with the corpse he was clutching and silently crying over. It was heartbreaking, but none of them could blame their captain. Everyone at the GCPD knew of their history, and the gossip around Harvey's potential pining.

 

As Miguel went to the top of the hill, he glanced over his shoulder one last time at the broken man. Harvey was standing up now, and as Miguel turned back away, he saw his Captain lift something. Miguel shook it off and headed out; there was a city who needed him and the paramedics were already on their way.

 

What he nor the other K9’s saw was Harvey plunge that something into his neck.

 

\----

 

Harvey felt numb yet simultaneously more aware of his surroundings than before, like a butterfly emerging from a damp cocoon. There wasn’t an ounce of fear in him, only unbridled emotions of protection and rage. He could feel every beat of his heart, and every breath he took he was constantly aware. The beating veins on his face surged like his heart as he clutched Jim until the paramedics arrived.

 

He couldn’t leave Jim, not until he saw that his corpse was okay. But he had taken in the smell of Jim’s musk, and traced over his bloody knuckles probably fifty times by now. It was intoxicating how close he was to Jim.

 

But now he had a new purpose: to make Lee pay.

 

Figuring out where she would go was tricky, considering the chaos and death that was reigning through Gotham, and the fact that she escaped custody. Harvey spent all day trying to track her down, despite the frantic officers at the GCPD trying to get him to calm down. He couldn’t, not for a second. The terrified looks on his subordinates’ faces only made him more frustrated, which smashing several artifacts from his office helped to temporarily relieve.

 

“Promise I’ll kill her Jim,” Harvey said to himself as he stared out his office window. The streets below resembled a wild animal kingdom, and Lee was somewhere in there, probably smug that she took Jim away from Harvey.

 

Then the phone on his desk rang, and Harvey picked it up within only a couple seconds.

 

_“Harvey.”_

 

Harvey knew that voice. His eyes turned a sickening red and the veins deepened, and he used every bit of self control he had left to not crush the phone in his hands now.

 

“What do you want?” Harvey breathed, mentally counting to keep it together. He had to play it smart. Lee wasn’t an idiot, especially not in her new state of mind and body.

 

 _“Jim didn’t try to stop the bomb,”_ Lee said through the phone, _“Is he using his full potential to wreak havoc in the streets, like the rest of the animals here?”_

 

“I don’t want to arrest you, but I’d like to talk. Just you and me.”

 

_“Like I would fall for that, you old fool. You can’t keep us apart. We were meant to be, and I will find him.”_

 

“Shut it, you rotten bitch.”

 

_“Ooh, feisty. Is this how your last two marriages failed? Treating women like this? No wonder you liked Jim-”_

 

Now Harvey crushed the phone in his hand before she could finish, having finally gotten sick of her taunting, feminine voice. She had to pay. Harvey would not resist it anymore, not until he could hang her head in his Captain’s office with a shiny plaque reminding others of the woman who took his Jim.

 

As Harvey left his office, he passed Lucius, who was ready to say something but refrained when he saw the determined fury in Harvey’s inhumane eyes. Tuttle stood in Harvey’s way, and was roughly shoved into a desk for daring to stop his Captain.

 

“Wait, Captain!” Tuttle called, “Where you going?”

 

“Hunting,” Harvey growled.

 

\----

 

It wasn’t hard to guess, but both Harvey and Lee seemed to have the same idea of going to Jim’s apartment. Harvey couldn’t help himself. He needed to get more of Jim’s scent, as well as a gut feeling that this would be a good place to start looking.

 

Lee was sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of scotch in her hand, smiling like a wife greeting her husband when he comes home from work. Her other hand laid on top of a gun- no doubt Jim’s gun- as her slim fingers traced over the metal. Her makeup was still extravagant and her hair done up, no doubt to seduce Jim. This just pissed off Harvey more.

 

Harvey took a single step forward, but retracted when Lee held up the gun. A smiled pulled her lips up in demented amusement as she took a moment to finish her scotch.

 

“Ah, ah, ah, hold it there, big boy,” Lee said coolly with a wag of her finger, “Where is he?”

 

“You,” Harvey snarled, his virus showing physical signs again, causing Lee to chuckle.

 

“I see you’ve contracted the gift. Has Jim?”

 

Harvey fell silent and shook his head.

 

“He… didn’t take it?” For a moment Lee looked like herself in a quick expression of shock that broke through her virus facade.

 

Harvey’s gloved fists clenched into tight balls. “No, he didn’t… he’s gone.”

 

The conflicted look on Lee’s face followed by a quiet, “Oh,” was disgusting. She knew what she did, and she wouldn’t have regretted it. Harvey knew she wouldn’t. However, Lee did lower her weapon and her smile returned, but not as confident as before.

 

“So what, come to avenge him? If you are, I’m surprised you had it in you. Or maybe, this virus makes you realize what you truly are.”

 

“What’s that?” Harvey took a few steps forward. Lee stood from her chair and sauntered to Harvey, her soft hand cupping his jaw.

 

“Obsessed.”

 

“W-What?”

 

“You’re obsessed with Jim Gordon. You think I’m stupid? I saw how you looked at him with such lust whenever you were around him. You knew he was mine, yet you pursued. I bet he invaded your sultry dreams, and you wondered what that big mouth of his could do around your-”

 

“That’s not true,” Harvey lied.

 

“Oh, but you and I both know it is. We both fell for the same man who doesn’t do anything but bring death, yet you can’t see that we were meant to be. He never loved you, and he never will. But now we both can’t have him, I see.”

 

The bubbling fury in Harvey’s veins unleashed in a punch to Lee’s pretty little face, sending her flying back. Despite both of them having the increased strength of the Tetch virus, Harvey had the upper hand in weight and strength. Every pain he held and all the love in his heart came out as he straddled Lee, beating her senseless.

 

Was Lee coming to her senses? Was she quietly pleading for Harvey to stop as he smashed her fingers with his bare hands, loving how easily the crunched is his fists? Or when he grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the wood floor, hearing the satisfying crunch of her nose breaking, her blood staining the floor? Or when he smashed the empty glass of scotch over her skull, finally knocking her out cold as her own blood mixed with smeared makeup? Who knows.

 

The entire scene was a blur to Harvey, like his mind was watching from the back seat as the remnants of Alice Tetch put his body in auto pilot. He knew he was going to far, but he couldn’t, nor wanted to, stop. This was for Jim, he told himself. Jim was dead, and Lee needed to share the fate, despite knowing she was going to a very different place.

 

Jim’s memory could be at peace if Harvey can kill the one who ruined everything.

 

Lee ruined Harvey from actually confessing to Jim, and ruined any future possibility of Harvey doing so. It was his own folly that he didn’t pursue Jim when he could, yes. But all he could focus on now was how _angry_ he was.

 

As he stood up to grab the pistol from the kitchen table, he heard his cell phone ring from his pocket. With a bloody hand Harvey held it to his ear, his whole body trembling with raw emotion as he planted a foot down on the unconscious Lee, just to make sure she couldn’t escape for good.

 

“What?!” Harvey yelled.

 

 _“It’s… It’s Gordon,”_ Tuttle spoke on the other line, his voice cowardly in response to Harvey’s outburst, _“I dunno how but… he’s alive. He’s okay.”_

 

Harvey didn’t respond or move as he let the cell phone slip out of his hand, clattering on the floor. Autopilot shut off, and he looked down at the bloodied and broken Lee with a pit forming in his stomach- an unsettling mix of horror and instant regret.

 

“What have I done…?” Harvey muttered. He picked his phone up and called another ambulance.

 

\----

 

The antidote for the virus did all but take away the immense guilt that Harvey had carried on his shoulders for over two weeks now. He didn’t know if it was the guilt or his feelings for Jim that had him spend countless hours sitting by Jim’s beside, waiting for him to respond. He knew he was losing sleep, but he couldn’t sleep anyways, knowing what he did.

 

Jim had been unresponsive, yet alive, that was good. Doctors worked tirelessly to keep his heart pumping, but eventually he progressed to his eyes following people around the room, then barely working, yet working, motor and verbal skills. Harvey knew he had to wait to break the news, at least until Jim was aware enough to feel.

 

Lee somehow was alive, but was also in intensive care, naturally- too many broken bones to count, blunt trauma to the head, in need of a lot of stitches- and all caused by Harvey. Something disgusting and twisted within Harvey wished she had died. At least then he wouldn’t have to force himself to go see her and give apologies he wasn’t sure he meant. He still hadn’t visited her, and hadn’t planned to for a while. Maybe not ever.

 

This was bad. Harvey didn’t want this. Why did he take that virus? Jim would have pulled through even if he hadn’t, but now Harvey has to pull the weight of attempted murder of someone he knew Jim cared deeply for.

 

It was possible that Harvey really did want this. He was truly, utterly obsessed with Jim, and wanted no one to stand in his way, even if he had to use violence. Looking in the mirror every morning he half-expected to see Barbara Kean looking back, as they both had the same obsession for a while.

 

The virus had broken him, and made him realize that love was his one true weakness, a burden he now had to carry.

 

One day Jim was able to hold a conversation. His voice was hoarse and weak, but he was still the same Jim. Harvey joked around like usual, and was there for Jim if he needed anything. He embraced Jim when Jim started crying out of the blue, rubbing his back in small circles the way Jim liked it.

 

Jim pulled away and allowed Harvey to wipe his watery eyes for him. His face had fallen and Harvey could feel his sins crawling back up through his ribs as Jim looked at him with those beautiful blue eyes, Harvey knowing very well that he couldn’t hide it any longer.

 

“Harvey? Where’s… where’s Lee?”

**Author's Note:**

> Here I got a [regular blog](thegarbagechan.tumblr.com), and an [art blog](drawingcrows.tumblr.com) too. Both are abundant with gordlock and gotham in general


End file.
